Star Wars: The
Force Unleashed II, the single player action sequel to Lucas
Arts mixed gem Star Wars: The Force Unleashed and is a step up
for this spectacular story line. Bringing a moody darkness to
the epic much like Empire Strikes Back did for the films. At
this stage of the game, one can only hope for a third game
because Starkiller is a character you just want to follow and
see how his adventures go. The events parallel the events in
Star Wars: Episode III and Episode IV.

The original
game sold more than seven million copies worldwide. With such
intriguing twists in the storyline and intertwining the events
with the Star Wars time line and iconic characters that fans
know and love, just cements this latest game in the hearts of
Star Wars fans worldwide.

Our hero/anti hero Starkiller gave his life in the last game…so
how in the world is he back in this latest continuation of the
saga that is Star Wars? Well simply put, it seems you cannot
keep a good clone down. Darth Vader for some reason has plans
for Starkiller and the use of his clone, in order to crush the
Rebellion Vader works behind the scenes trying to make the
perfect clone of Starkiller. The story line is actually
engaging, bringing back Darth Vader’s secret apprentice. Of
course, nothing ever goes right, or at least not exactly as
planned. Haunted by residual memories of his genetic template,
the clone Starkiller soon finds him self at odds once again with
the Empire the story line is straightforward, not very in-depth.
However, an intense one full of emotion, it is a simple story
with our hero having a single mind to find the love of his life,
or at least the women that he remembers loving. The whole thing
was engrossing enough to have me jumping with delight as the
story unfolded.

In truth, the
story is like a sub plot to the larger story that is Star Wars:
The Force Unleashed, both 1 and 2 together. While the story
captures bits and pieces of what the original was all about; by
itself, it just does not feel as complete. Taken together as one
story it feels more solid. Still it does have its true Star Wars
adventure moments that have you stare with mouth agape as the
events unfolds.

Play wise, I was not so sure of what to expect here. Sure some
of the same old stuff to be sure. Happily Star Wars: The Force
Unleashed II delivers even more over the top fun and the feel of
being a rogue Jedi…a little of Sith and a little of Jedi rolled
into one. With some of the force powers we all know and love
from the last game, there are a few new cool tricks too. Jedi
mind trick is one of my favourites. Storm Troopers can be tricked
into fighting for you, or they can be over come with mind
numbing fear and leap to their doom.

Force Fury is
kind of like hooking the Jedi abilities to a super battery. The
Jedi powers increase exponentially. For instance, force
lightning…rather than send a target twitching to the ground in
convulsions, Fore Lightning enhanced with Force Fury now fries a
target to a cinder. One other helpful power is more game
oriented but nonetheless welcome, push a button on the D pad and
the force can show you what direction you need to take.

The controls
have been somewhat streamlined, there are still combos that can
be achieved by a multitude of different button presses…but the
main attack button is just one button mash madness. This is not
necessarily a bad thing. It makes the game that much more
accessible to just about any level of game player. Powers like
force grip seem much more tuned and less haphazard, the
targeting seems much easier and control of an object is much
more pin point accurate.

Some
customization is back and has been expanded a bit to include
different costumes and light saber crystals. Since our hero
wealds dual light sabres, players can have two sabres of
different colours. The saber crystals also give some boost to
different attack abilities

Most of the areas that the adventure unfolds in are somewhat
interesting, though you can only stand the inside of a large
space ship for so long before it becomes a bit of a bore. The
game breaks that up a bit with some mild challenges including
puzzles to solve, find a power coupling to insert in a junction
to get a door open….(Kind of strange in some respects since up
to that point I was force pushing and force gripping door open
and turning them into scrap to get through.) There is also some
plat form jumping to break things up a bit, sometimes
un-hindered and sometimes dodging enemy fire.

The visuals look
great. However, occasionally when a lot is going on, or there
are explosions the graphics can stutter a bit. The characters
all look great and reactions are sometimes amusing as Storm
Troopers react to the force powers. The game uses Pixelux
Entertainment’s Digital Molecular Matter (DMM) joined with the
Havok physics system and Euphoria from Natural Motion LTD. Even
with the occasional graphical stutters, the tweaks to the
computer-controlled characters show vast improvements all around
in how they move and react. Speaking of character movements, I
will not spoil too much for you if you have not played the game,
but it is cool that Darth Vader moves and fights just like his
movements in the films, after the armor and breathing aid.

There are a
couple of new enemy that really are tough to handle, especially
if they have a bunch of Storm Troopers as back up, these are big
droids that use either flame as a weapon, or carbonite to freeze
you. If you have the bad luck to be frozen in mid leap…down you
come and break into bits and that’s the end of you. These big
droids come equipped with a massive shield to block in coming
attacks. The tactic to take that away is learned early in the
game. Force grip the shield and bash them with it. Then they are
open for your attacks. They are not a push over by any sense of
the word. They can be defeated though with the right tactics.

In the end Star
Wars: The Force Unleashed II is a straightforward linear game.
While it really does not bring anything new to the gaming
experience…. It is a very good chapter into this franchise that
will please many a fan and gamer alike. We can only hope for
another chapter, maybe a bit longer than this game that was
finished in an evening of play. There has to be more to this
adventure, to the story of Starkiller, as to if LucasArts see’s
fit to do another one…well we can only wait and see.